Youth in Focus

By Richard A. Ross

Expanding horizons

	Contributed photo Joey Hawker of Narrowsburg recently graduated as salutatorian from Sullivan West. (Click for larger image)

NARROWSBURG, NY — Joey Hawker of Narrowsburg is ready for a quantum leap. Raised in the tiny hamlet of Narrowsburg, NY, he will soon be heading off to George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Intrigued by cultures and viewpoints that differ from his own, Hawker will major in international affairs and could end up working for the State Department. Such work will likely take him far from the small town he has always called home. He asserted that no matter where he travels, the chapter of his life in the small town and the values he acquired growing up here will always be a part of him.

Hawker speaks reverently about his years in Narrowsburg, a place where one has the privilege “to walk down Main Street and greet everyone you see by name or recognize everyone’s cars by the license plates.” In his salutatory address, he cited an Internet forwarded message that said, “You might be from a small town if your teachers remember when they taught your parents.” That would aptly describe the Narrowsburg school Joey attended until the end of his sophomore year.

The comfort of the small school environs included having his mother Pat in house as school nurse, although Joey bewailed the fact that he couldn’t get away with anything with her there. The school board’s decision to send the Narrowsburg students to the Jeffersonville campus of Sullivan West ended an era.

“I was part of the insurrection,” said Hawker, but he turned his energy instead to organizing a Narrowsburg school reunion that brought more than one thousand former graduates back to their old school.

Now that high school has ended, he looks forward to the opportunity to live in a big city replete with excitement, opportunities, diversity and activity that small towns often don’t provide.

His oldest sister, Laura, went to George Washington after graduating from Narrowsburg in 1994. Visiting her there kindled an attraction for the nation’s capital. She currently lives in Germany where she works for the U.S. Army. Visits to Laura in Europe gave Joey an opportunity to see places such as Italy, Austria, England and Slovenia. “It was so interesting for me. You get to see perspectives other than your own, and more importantly, you learn where those perspectives come from.”

	Contributed photo Hawker has spent time in Europe. He is pictured here during a visit to London. (Click for larger image)

Service is a hallmark of the Hawker family. In addition to his mother’s service as school nurse, his father, Art, served in Vietnam and is now a staff inspector for the State police. His sister, Jenny, lives in Scranton and serves as its first female fire fighter. Another sister, Megan, graduated from RIT and its ROTC program and is now a second lieutenant in the Army.

Joey has a passion for music. He studied piano with Karen Jay from kindergarten through eighth grade. His proficiency has enabled him to accompany not only the school choir but musicians including the Pabon sisters whom he met during a Delaware Valley Opera (DVO) production.

Though classically trained, his tastes in music are expansive. Hawker works with the DVO and serves on the board of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance. He is in awe Elaine Giguere, the DVAA’s executive director. “She started out with a storefront and look what the DVAA has become,” he said.

Given Hawker’s engaging personality, wit and intelligence, it is likely that people in the world at large will soon be in awe of him.

This week’s youth in focus is going global.